The MTL Professional Development Programme is a collection of 202 PowerPoint presentations that will provide you with step-by-step summaries of a key management or personal development skill. This presentation is on "Empowered Organisations" and will show you the change that comes over individuals, teams and relationships when you empower your staff.

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
Empowered Organisations
EMPOWERED
ORGANISATIONS
It’s your job, so own it
MTL: The Professional Development Programme

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
Empowered Organisations
Attribution: All images are from sources where a Creative Commons license exists for commercial use. All icons are on subscription
from thenounproject. All clipart is from free sources. The MTL Professional Development Programme is copyright of Manage Train
Learn.
Empowered
Organisations
Introduction: When you empower people, a remarkable change comes over your
workplace. Gone are the worst aspects of disenfranchised organisations, such as
blame-and-fear, bunker mentalities, and me-first thinking. In their place, comes trust,
confidence, and shared and mutually-beneficial partnerships. Here are 7 key features
of empowered workplaces.

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
Empowered Organisations
A meeting of minds sparking new ideas
1. "WHAT
SHOULD I
KNOW?"
https://freerangestock.com/photos/56023/on-the-same-wavelenght--
two-brains-having-an-idea.html
You know you have an empowered
organisation when the following
conversation can take place:
CEO: "Hi, Jean, how are things today?"
Jean: "Fine, John, thanks. The only problem
is that old machine. It's keeping us down to
3 tons a day when my customers need to
take 4 tons. What should I know?"
Such an exchange can only take place when
managers trust people to own their work.

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
Empowered Organisations
2. YOU CAN
TELL...
https://pixabay.com/en/construction-workers-laborers-759298/
Women construction workers
You can tell you're in an empowered
organisation when you see the following:
a. there are no reserved car park places for
executives, but there are for customers
b. you see women doing jobs they don't
usually do, like manning security posts
c. there are no unnecessary signs
prohibiting, warning people, because they
already know
d. there are no status divisions between
people such as names on doors.

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
Empowered Organisations
Empowered people are self-motivated
3. NO LONGER
DEPENDENT
https://freerangestock.com/photos/55650/motivation-sign-represents-
do-it-now-and-advertisement.html
In the past, the majority of people were
made to be dependent on their work
organisations. It was a way to keep people
under control. In today's empowered
organisations, people are no longer
dependent on the organisation but
interdependent with it. Together, the
individual learns to develop their own role,
their own direction, their own discipline,
their own motivation, and their own sense
of success. They've grown up.

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
Empowered Organisations
4. "IT'S OUR
LINE"
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wocintechchat/25392591373/
Jobs are determined by ability not perception
One of the things that changes when you
move to empowered systems is what
people understand by a job. It's no longer
what appears on the job description but
what needs to be done. Here's how one
worker described the change: "In the old
days, when the line broke down, we'd stand
around waiting until maintenance arrived,
even though we knew perfectly well what
to do. Now we do it ourselves, because it's
our line."

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
Empowered Organisations
Trust the team to deliver
5. INVOLVING
PEOPLE
https://freerangestock.com/photos/9830/carving-meat.html
Ed Lawler says that you need to put in place
6 key elements if you are to empower
people. These are:
a. involve people in the business by shifting
power downwards
b. require people to add value at all levels
c. organise around small groups
d. hold teams accountable for customer
relations
e. base rewards on how well the team does
f. pay people according to added value.

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
Empowered Organisations
6.
RESOURCEFUL
EMPLOYEES
MANAGING
https://freerangestock.com/photos/61091/follow-the-leader--leadership-
concept-.html
Empower people to lead themselves
The result of empowering people is a self-
managing team. This is a team that directs
most of its own work rather than relying on
the team leader. This enables them to do
what is necessary to meet the team's goals
and the organisation's goals for them.
Helga Drummond described this change as
one from "employee resource
management" via "managing employees
resourcefully" to "resourceful employees
managing".

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
Empowered Organisations
You don’t need to be managed when you can self-manage
7. LOOSE AND
EASY
https://freerangestock.com/photos/40169/promotion-and-marketing-
concept--little-people-in-front-of-a-lo.html
This is how Brett Arquette describes self-
managing teams: "Keep it loose and easy.
Hire people who don't need supervised.
Hold a meeting once a week to hand out
assignments and then let them get on with
it. Allow them to come and go as they
please, don't watch the clock. If people call
in and say they will miss work, don't
demand a reason. You'd be surprised how
much peer pressure can keep people on
the straight and narrow."

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
Empowered Organisations
This has been a Slide Topic from Manage Train Learn
AFinal
Word
There is one simple measure of empowered workplaces: how do people feel? If people don't like
being empowered, it's usually because they would rather the organisation (ie management) did all
the thinking for them. The truly happy and fulfilled employees are always those who are
empowered.